The first week of March is behind us, and so is Hoops Madness, a LeadsCon event during which attendees were given the chance to prove their free throw prowess. But the fun has just begun. March Madness is right around the corner, and we’re in the throes of DMS Marketing Madness ― already entering Round 2.

Every week of March, we are highlighting four innovative campaigns and asking you to vote for your favorite. The winner each week moves on to the DMS Marketing Madness Final Four, announced on March 30. The winner of the final four will be crowned DMS Marketing Madness Champion the following week.

Round 1 Winner ― Tide

The votes are in and Tide, the winner of the Super Clio for the best ad in Super Bowl LII, takes home the glory of winning the first round of Marketing Madness!

Farmers Insurance ― Poking Fun at Life

March isn’t just big for basketball, it’s also the culmination of the Hollywood award season. Extending its “We Know from Experience” campaign, Farmers Insurance repurposed footage to launch a low-budget, high-attention effort that is perfect for this time of year. The Burkies are “a fake-movie-award-show that proves once and for all that truth is stranger than fiction.” Named after Professor Burke (actor J.K. Simmons), the Burkies includes trailers for six real-life claim nominees, each in a different movie gender (horror, romance, etc.). You can see them all here.

Twitter ― Amplifying Movements

From an advertiser’s perspective, the Academy Awards are increasingly becoming a coveted commercial slot similar to the Super Bowl. This year, during the Oscars, Twitter ran a 60-second spot focused on the women’s movement. Leveraging #HereWeAre, the hashtag first used to highlight male-dominated panels at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), Twitter declared itself the platform of the underserved. Featuring women of all ages, the black and white Twitter spot was narrated by award-winning poet Denice Frohman reciting her original work #SheInspiresMe.

Lacoste ― Branding the Endangered

Beginning March 1, Lacoste replaced its iconic crocodile logo with embroideries of ten endangered species. The 1,775 shirts produced were in quantities matching the quantity of each endangered animal remaining in the wild. With proceeds going to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the limited-edition Lacoste polo shirts sold out within days. In addition to raising funds, the “Save Our Species” campaign garnered tremendous buzz.

Nike’s newest campaign – promoting the Nike Run Club app and the Epic React Flyknit shoe – imagines a “stopocalypse” in which the Earth has stopped spinning. Drawing inspiration from a hamster, athletes around the world encourage each other and the general population to run the Earth back into motion. The Nike #ChooseGo campaign, starring comedian Kevin Hart and world-class athletes Kylian Mbappe, Ge Manqi, Kobe Bryant and Simon Biles, also includes narrated audio guided runs (on the Nike app) and running events around the world.

We’ll be featuring four innovative campaigns each week this month. On March 30th, we’ll announce the contestants for our DMS Marketing Madness Final Four. A final vote will let us crown the DMS Marketing Madness Champion.

About the Author

Kathy Bryan is the Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Digital Media Solutions (DMS), an industry leader in providing end-to-end customer acquisition solutions that help clients grow their businesses and realize their marketing goals. In this role, Kathy is responsible for all aspects of marketing and communications for DMS and its subsidiary brands. Since its inception, DMS has evolved into a full-service performance marketing company that services firms within highly complex and competitive industries including mortgage, education, insurance, consumer brands, automotive, jobs and careers. DMS has achieved incredible year-over-year growth, which has earned recognition on the Inc. 5000 list in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.